Achievement

All cold-blooded animals face the challenge of maintaining the functions of the neural circuits that control behavior despite significant temperature swings that alter all of the processes in their cells. Trainees Lamont Tang and Jon Caplan have collaborated on a project that combines experimental electrophysiological recordings from the crab stomatogastric ganglion with computational models. They find that while the frequency of the pyloric rhythm changes when temperature is altered, that the phase of the neuronal activity is temperature compensated. The computational models provide insight into how this occurs.